There are so many stories like this. My last *A RTW required a reissue that took, no kidding, 5 hours of my time on the phone and the United counter at SEA. And the thing is, it was not that complicated of a reissue - or at least, it shouldn't have been.

For the final part of the drama, the United agent at SEA was on the phone with the rate desk for 1 hour 45 minutes. She said she had worked for UA for 17 years and never had a phone call that long... but then again, she had never reissued a RTW before.

Anyway, now I fly over on OneWorld 70% of the time because changes and reissues are so much easier. I'll have to go back to *A for certain destinations, and some of the carriers are nice, but it's hard to deal with the incredible difficulty of making changes.

YMMV, of course...